South Asian Business news and information

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of remittance that remittance was gradually becoming the main driving force of Bangladeshi economy. Today, I again touched the exactness of this idea from a report published in the Daily Star (one of the most popular dailies of Bangladesh). It has been reported that last month (March 2006), a record amount of $478m has been sent by Non Resident Bangladeshis (NRB) from around the world. There has been 23% increase of remittance in the first three quarters of the current Bangladeshi fiscal year (1 July to 30 June). In the period from July 2005 to March 2006, remittance earning for the country was $3,476 million while this figure was $2,822.86 million during the period July 2004-March 2005.  

 The main reason behind this growth is the success of Bangladeshi banks to convince NRBs to send money through the official channel. It is widely believed that more money flows to through hundi (illegal channel) than the official channel. Thus, there is a huge potential for growth of remittance flow to Bangladesh. The central bank of the country (Bangladesh Bank) is expecting that $4.5 billion will come to as remittance by the end of the current fiscal year.  

 Bangladesh now badly needs this remittance earning to ease the growing pressure on its foreign exchange reserve.